Three Foreigners Beheaded in Saudi Arabia

A Sudanese man and two Indians were beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Friday for various crimes including child rape and murder, an Interior Ministry statem

A Sudanese man and two Indians were beheaded in Saudi Arabia on Friday for various crimes including child rape and murder, an Interior Ministry statement said.

Sudanese national Mohammad Abdul-Rahman Barqawi was executed in the holy city of Mecca for raping a child, the statement said. It said Barqawi had previously been deported from Saudi Arabia for a number of offenses connected with alcohol. Alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia, where Islamic law is applied.

He later returned to the country and continued to commit crimes, the statement said. He was found guilty of 26 separate incidents of sodomy, theft, selling stolen goods and buying alcohol.

Barqawi was executed "because he didn't repent his crimes, despite the previous punishments, and because those whose evil cannot be expunged except through death should be killed," said the statement.

Indian national Benjamin Vincent Saldana was executed in the western city of Medina for beating his wife to death with an iron pipe, the statement said.

A second Indian, Kuleel Kanjo Abdul-Razzaq, was beheaded in the central city of Shaqra for killing his employer and robbing him, said the statement.

It said Abdul-Razzaq tied-up his elderly employer, Abdul-Aziz al-Youssef, covered him with a blanket and left him to die by suffocation.

The executions, carried out with a sword in a public square, bring the number of people beheaded in the kingdom this year to 24. At least 99 people were executed last year.

According to Sharia or Islamic law, Saudi Arabia mandates the death penalty for convictions of murder, rape, drug trafficking, sodomy or armed robbery.

The Muslim kingdom also orders the amputation of the hands -- or less often feet -- of convicted thieves.

In a report released March 28, Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia of arbitrary arrests, torture and executions, the persecution of political opponents and religious minorities and cruel judicial punishments, including amputations.

The kingdom rejected the charges made by the London-based human rights organization but said it was ready for a special rapporteur to visit to check on the independence of its judicial system – (Agencies)